Week 37 - Business Aviation Review

The first week of September 2026 closed a busy stretch for business aviation, mixing leadership change, certification and delivery milestones, and fresh signs that the pre-owned market is dividing by generation.

On 31 August, Brian Rohloff became CEO of Textron Aviation after 29 years at the company, most recently leading customer support. He succeeds Ron Draper as Cessna and Beechcraft push next-generation Citation flight-test programs and try to raise jet production after a post-pandemic factory overhaul. That same week SyberJet claimed an unofficial east-to-west U.S. transcontinental speed record in the SJ30-2, beating the long-standing Phenom 300 mark by a wide margin pending official ratification.

Manufacturers kept delivering headlines. Embraer’s Phenom 300EV earned simultaneous Brazilian, U.S., and European certification as the first light jet with Garmin Emergency Autoland, though deliveries are not expected until 2028. GAMA’s first-half 2026 figures, released early September, showed business jets, turboprops, and rotorcraft all up year over year; only pistons declined. Pilatus stood out with a sharp jump in PC-12 deliveries.

On the industrial side, Bombardier agreed to acquire MHI Canada Aerospace, adding Ontario wing and manufacturing capacity and about 750 people as it builds resilience in the Global and Challenger supply chain. Thrive Aviation and a Honda Aircraft subsidiary launched a fractional program mixing HondaJet HA-420s and Challenger 3500s. In Asia, Sino Jet added a second Gulfstream G700 to a charter fleet approaching 50 aircraft. Charter platform LunaJets also reported a record July.

NBAA used the week to preview NBAA-BACE and publish Q2 safety analysis flagging powerplant failures and collision risk among fatal events. VREF’s 1 September values painted a split market: transaction volume is down versus 2025 and closer to 2020 levels, while prices rose on some newer airframes and fell on many older ones. Younger jets remain scarce; backlogs at the top OEMs stay historically high.

For operators and flight departments, the message is familiar: demand for capable, newer metal and flexible access models remains firm even as the used market cools by segment. The industry heads into autumn with a new Textron chief, another light-jet record claim, and NBAA-BACE on the horizon.